Night Gathers its Churn and Breath
Carol Berg
These sleepless nights unhinge my chest
and I cannot sleep cannot sink into that
steady beat while the stars open my heart
the stars blow open the night of my eyes
and the heat of midnight crawls inside my
spine. The sound of night carries
my heart off into the woods where I
become shadow and my heart shatters.
I am opening my throat my mouth my lips
and the night moves above me and enters my
lungs and the moon fills my body. My tongue
burns with starlight with shadowlight.
In this night my heart becomes a black
furred animal my ears aware
of the leaves whispering and roots murmur.
And you are the trees swaying above me above
my eyes my fingertips. You are the darkness
unclasping my clenched desire. Your
darkness builds a nest in my mouth twig
by reckless twig. You this darkness this
large wing fluttering in my wrist. It pulses
me, you quasar, you footfall, you wave
curling toward me. You the heavy wave
of night curling up, gathering the churn
gathering the voices of all night while my
feet stumble in your wet sand. You the green
wave of night crashing over my skin and I am lost
within this crashing and creaking, I am
lost within this unchecked breath.
